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~ ThiefWare companies get away with practices
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> Can't Do That in the Real World
ThiefWare / spyware companies are like print
media companies using other newspapers to insert their ads and a small 2 page report at
the expense of the newspapers.
- Imagine a print media company providing a small 2 page weekly report
(which would be the counterpart to the application).
- They intercept newspaper deliveries in order to insert those reports
before they get to the final customer's house.
- They also insert their own ads into the newspapers that cover over
some of the ads inside the newspaper.
- Then the newspaper reaches the doorsteps of the people signed up for
paper delivery.
- Instead of seeing all the ads in the newspaper that originally were put there by the
newspaper, people see ads inserted that cover up some of the original newspaper ads so
that the print media company's ads are displayed instead.
This is basically what thiefware companies do to the web sites that you visit when the
site content triggers thiefware ads to popup or have ad links embedded.
How long do you think newspapers would put up with that? You would expect them to take
legal action and would sue the company intercepting the deliveries. Yet, this is pretty
much what ThiefWare is doing all the time and they expect the court systems to rule in
their favor. ThiefWare companies call it legal. ThiefWare contextual ad companies conduct
this maneuver in the virtual world, but would never be able to legally attempt the same
process in the real world. Why is it that they can skirt by the law in the virtual world
and people don't see it for what it is?
The main reason is that (as far as I can see) the court systems don't see virtual
information the same way as hard print media. If the courts would open their eyes and see
ThiefWare the way described above, perhaps a different ruling would be made. It would not
be in favor of the ThiefWare company's right to deface and advertise in connection with
other people's sites that do not belong to the ThiefWare companies putting up the ads.
As far as is known, I doubt the legal system has brought up a legal point as shown
above. It's about time this point has been applied to the next legal proceeding of a
company vs. ThiefWare in court. Hopefully this reasoning will resonate with the judge and
we'll get some justice. As far as I'm concerned, ThiefWare ads should be illegal.
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